[Msylvia]

I live in Tampa. I've started something of a web diary about my experiences
with the storms, and I've decided to go ahead and put them up here. Ivan is headed for us now, so the last part (I hope) will probably follow shortly.


CHARLEY (the first part)


For those who don't know, I live in Tampa. The following is an account of the last two days as I experienced them. I posted this on another board, but I added a few things here I didn't want to make public there.

Some of the times are off ... this is just as close as I remember.

THURSDAY

8am - Get to work. No calls are coming in; everyone is talking about the storm.

9am - Call my mom, who lives in a retirement/mobile home park in St Pete. Two of my uncles also have homes here, but they are part time residents, snowbirds. They are in Canada at the moment. There is no one else to get these places ready.

9:01am - My mother tells me her preparation plans for her place consist of bringing her plants inside and closing the blinds. I am overheard telling her that the blinds aren't going to help. Get laughed at by co-workers.

My mom and I always argue when there is a storm coming. She has plans to go to a friend's house; I want her at my place. We live on other sides of the bay, though, so to visit each other we have to cross the bridges over the bay. My mother is terrified of the bridges in a storm and won't cross if there is even a regular rainshower coming.

10am - We are informed that we are finishing up for Saturday early, but that we will be open for business as usual on Friday, though closing early. There is hired labor putting up plywood and getting the building ready. We work right next to the river. Apparently, they have to move the newsprint for the newspaper, because if the rolls get wet, they expand, and could crack the building foundation.

11am - argue with best friend via email. She for some reason is insisting storm will hit New Orleans.

12am - as forecasts continue to get more foreboding, I decide to try to get my mom's & uncles' awnings down. By now we are hearing rumors that all
of downtown will be shut down, and that a 12 foot surge is expected. In the downtown area, this would put the first floors of many buildings underwater.

12:50am - best friend informs me that she is being evacuated. I tell her that she can come to my place, as my apt is secure. I live in the middle apt of a u-shaped 3 story building.

1am - leave work. Cross bridge into Pinellas. Traffic going out of Pinellas
is bumper to bumper. People are driving like mad; cutting people off, road-raging in cases. I narrowly escape being smooshed by an SUV. So much for pulling together.

1:50 - get to mom's house. Put her awning down. Take down my favorite painting and put it in a closet.

There's not a lot to do. My mother has already decided it's pretty much hit or miss. Her papers are in a safe that is going with her.

3:30 - go to 1st uncle's place. Turn power off. Cannot get his awning; he painted over it, and the paint makes it too hard for me to unscrew the fasteners. We unplug everything, move stuff away from windows. Before leaving, I walk around back and see a window cracked. I close it. As I come around, a neighbor informs us that we are supposed to leave the windows cracked, as otherwise the air is pulled out and the place becomes a vaccuum. I have never heard of this before. My mom seems to agree

We crack the windows, lock up, and leave.

4:10 - go to second uncle's house. His awnings were down (he put them down before he went up north) There is a palmetto bug on floor. I scream and blanch (I'm phobic) Mom smooshes it. We cannot find the fuse box, so we unplug everything we can find, take down a few loose objects from outside, and crack the windows.

As we leave, we look at some of the other places. Some are obviously ready. Others, however, are not. Several people have left plants, chairs, lawn ornaments, etc out. These things become projectiles in high speed winds (one newscaster said a splinter can become a bullet at that speed) so it is not just careless to leave these things out, it's downright mean.


5:00 - go back to mom's house. Look around to see if there is anything else I can do here. There isn't. We talk for a while, and I ask her again if she wants to come with me. She says she will be fine at her friend's place,
which is not in an evacuation zone. Then she tells me if her home is gone she will come stay with me. We hug and say our 'I love you's'

6:00 - I take the long way home, as I've already seen the traffic on the major bridges and know I want no part of that.

7:00 - I get to friend's house. My two best friends here live in the same complex. One is waiting for her boyfriend to fly in from Cincinatti to see if they are coming to my house or our other friend George's. The other is putting her furniture up. Cell phone signals are getting dodgy. The warnings to get to shelter are becoming increasingly severe.

7:10 - we attempt to balance a large armchair on 4 kitchen chairs to get it off floor. After a few minutes, we succeed. Ronni debates moving car under tree in hopes it will be crused.

7:30 - watch Trish tape her glass door. Ronni's attempt at taping windows was to criss cross scotch tape over it. Laugh at Ronni. We are not sure yet who is going where. It seems at one point like I may have 5 people staying with me.

7:50 - I take two basses with me for safekeeping and head home. Trish will follow after she is done getting her place ready.

8:40 - get home, unload basses, head to store. Stock up on candles, canned food, water, alchohol, and cigarettes. Also rent a bunch of movies.

10:00 - get home again. Trish is on her way.


11:00 - Trish arrives. I am at this point still not sure whether I am expected to work. One of the downsides to working where I do - we are the last thing to close. We text people, call people. Ronni and her boyfriend are joining a few others at George's. I call my friend in Maine, who just had her first baby. I decide I'm not going to work even if we're open.

3:00 - I go to sleep. Or try to.

[Msylvia]

FRIDAY


6:30 am - I wake up, listen to forecasts. Somewhere, a weather sensor has
gone down under 120mph winds. This freaks me out more than anything so far. I get up, take a shower, make coffee. Start filling ziplock baggies with water and putting them in freezer.

8am - I'm pretty sure by now I don't have to work, but I call just to be sure. We're closed (my dept is, anyway).

9am - I absolutely cannot stay still. I'm cleaning, doing laundry, anything.

9:15 am- attempt to play American McGee's Alice game. Cannot settle.

9:30 am - put in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Still cannot settle. Even the knights who say 'Ni' cannot really make me laugh. My cat is extremely nervous. She won't settle or leave me alone.

12pm - Trish has brought her camcorder, so we decide that we are going to document the day by filming a few minutes, every hour, on the hour. We
go out to a stair landing that overlooks the lake and shoot first segment.
Nothing is moving. No wind. We wonder about the geese in the pond, and call to them. They answer.

1pm - our friend Chad has also been evacuated. He calls, not sure where he is going. I tell him to come over, give him directions.

1:30 pm - go to find Chad, who is lost somewhere in the apt complex. He
has brought a huge cooler full of beer. Film second part, which, like the first, shows the weather doing absolutely nothing. Put manuscript disks in waterproof safe.

2pm - We start drinking. I fill tub and washing machine with water.

3pm - Chad goes to store for more ice. It starts to rain. I worry until he gets back. Go online breifly before unhooking everything; see sanne, tell her I'm worried for my mom and that I'm about to unplug the computer.

3:20 pm - bring radio out to balcony. Blast 'Riders on the Storm' by the Doors. Just seemed appropriate. This was a very surreal moment. At this point, we are still expecting the storm to hit us. There is an ominous feeling; I'm terrified that my mom will lose her house. My neighbors across the hall were also out on their balcony.

There are times when strangers will chat, when events break down the barriers between people, and it's suddenly ok to talk to each other. 911 was like that. So was this. My neighbors and I looked at each other and toasted (they were drinking too) and then we looked at the rain. The moment reminds me of the scene near the end of Titanic, when Kate Winslet is hanging onto the rail just before the ship goes down, and she exchanges a glance with the person next to her. There is a shared look; this is gonna be bad. The rain is very silent.
The world is very silent. Every car that goes by, we can hear clearly.

3:50pm- I, for no apparent reason, bump into one of my hanging plants on the balcony (I had moved most of the stuff off it, and was going to put the other stuff in once the wind picked up) Friends dissolve into laughter.

4:00pm - we attempt to film third segment. Tape breaks. We dissolve into laughter.

5:00pm - still waiting for the storm, which seems to be turning.

6:00pm- still waiting.

7:00pm- We still think we're going to get something.

&50pm- A single leaf blows by. That's about the extent of the wind we got.

8:00pm- At least some wind and rain???

9:00 - My neighbors Diana and Anthony show up. We attempt to watch Secret Window. We cannot help but note the irony of this all. Tampa is the city that cried wolf. Since I've lived here, we've predicted hurricanes several times. They never come. We giggle over it a little.

9:50 - we turn off the movie and start seeing the first footage of the damage to the south. We stop laughing and just sit there, stunned.


What angers me about this ... we, in Tampa Bay, were ready for this. At least, as ready as we could be. Once you've done all you can do, and you know your friends and family are safe, it's out of your hands. So you settle in and wait, ready to see something rare. That's the thinking behind everyone stocking up on alchohol (all liquor stores were packed) You might as well get drunk with your friends.

The people that got hit ... they only had, at most, a few hours to get out. They thought they were safe. If Tampa had been hit, there may have been more property damaged, but more people would have lived.


You never know what will happen tomorrow, the day after, an hour from now, or next week.

Never.


There is another storm forming now. Today there are tornados popping up all over the state.

[Msylvia]

FRANCES


Ok, well, apparently Mother Nature is demanding another
diary entry. The times are again skewed; this thing seemed endless.

THURSDAY (PM) See the original Black Sabbath at Ozzfest; decide I can die happy if approaching storm blows me away. We were hoping for an after party, but everyone is hopping on planes & buses and getting the hell out of dodge. Except, of course, for my ex, who is heading for South Fl, directly into the storm. This actually makes me happy, as it means the dog, whom he has custody of, will be with him.

LATER - Me and Delia wander down to the bar/casino at the Hard Rock. I get lost for a very surreal hour among what seems like endless rows of slot machines. There is what can best be described as a tower of TV's in the middle of the room. All of them are showing a giant blob headed straight for us.


EVEN LATER - Watch forecasts of the storm in room. One anchor notes that the storm is the size of Texas. Argue with Delia, who is insisting the storm is going to South Carolina. I inform her she is no longer allowed to make weather forecasts. Dallan and I giggle over this for ... well, we're still laughing.


FRIDAY - Go to Denny's with Dallan; head home and spend rest of day cleaning and relaxing. Call my mom, who has been told at the last moment that she will have to work the next day. This is unsettling, as I want her over the bridges long before the weather picks up. Delia and I reschedule seeing the new Exorcist movie and decide to go Saturday, before the storm. I get an email from my old roommate Nik in Orlando, asking if he can come here if storm gets bad. I am not sure who will end up at my place, but I tell him the shelter is open ... though it would be rather pointless for him to come here, as the storm will be engulfing the entire state.


SATURDAY
10am - Series of phone calls between my mom and I. She doesn't have a key, so I decide to leave door unlocked for her while I go to movie. She ends up being released from work at noon.

1:20 - Meet Delia for Exorcist and Chinese. Argue with her about coming here. Her plan is to wait and see if her apt floods before evacuating (she still thinks storm is going to SC)
After the movie, I call home to be sure my mom made it ok.

5pm - The sky is ominous; you can see the outer bands of the storm. Stop at store for last of needed supplies. The lights flicker as I am at register, and another customer informs the store owner - loudly - that someone has **** on the floor. I find it sad that even in the face of disaster, human decency can be non-existent. The first wave of the storm's rain hits as I am nearly home. I can barely see. I drive the last mile with knuckles white on steering wheel, more upset because I know my mom will be worrying than because of the rain.

5:20 - Arrive home, and discover that my mother has amused herself in my absence by taking EVERYTHING off my balcony and stuffing it into the laundry closet. This is a little overboard, as I am protected on three sides by a huge U-shaped 3 story building, tucked into a secure little niche. I can no longer get to washer & dryer, both of which need to be emptied and filled. (If I'm going to be without power, I WILL have clean clothes & sheets, dammit)

5:30 - Move furniture out of laundry closet. Leave decoration
type stuff in it. It will be easy to move things in if winds pick up enough to knock them around.

6pm - Make supper. Mom settles down on futon with book, blanket, and cat. She stays there, comfy and snuggled in, and basically doesn't move for the next two days.

6:30 - Get call from Dallan in Orlando. His grandfather, whom he was extremely close to, has just died. On top of that, he has already lost power and is out of candles, as he hadn't gotten around to restocking since Charley. He has no choice but to spend the weekend in complete darkness, greiving. There is nothing I can do, but I worry for him.

7 pm - Rains and wind intensify. As I suspected, the building is a worthy barrier. It shields my apt from the wind. On TV, every station is the same; showing this massive system moving in. Some of the footage from the Bahamas is coming in.



1am - go to bed.

[Msylvia]

SUNDAY -

9 am - I get up, take a shower, listen once more to forecasts that keep getting worse. Charley, though ultimately more vicious than Frances, crossed the state in about 6 hours, start to finish. Even though the storm started yesterday, we aren't even halfway through it yet. And even when we do get past the eye, the worst is yet to come. As the storm moves onto the Gulf, the warmer waters may cause it to re-intesify. The winds in the tail end could be far worse than the bulk of it.

10am - I fill tub and washing machine with water and make sure lighters and candles are within easy reach.

noon - Make nice hot meal, assuming I will be subsisting on cold canned food shortly.

1 - Still rainy and windy. The howl of the wind seems endless. Cable goes out, leaving one staticy channel. Several radio stations are simulcasting, though, so we can hear and see enough to make it out.


Mom is still in her spot on the futon. I have never seen her stay in one spot this long.

The news has become a collage of soundbites on damage reports throughout the entire state, now with the first warnings of the NEXT hurricane peppered in.

2 - Winds and rain still intensifying. The power flickers ominously several times, but amazingly, doesn't go out. Personally, I suspect this is due to the fact that the local power company recently installed several ginormous towers in my area, (which were of course heavily protested by angry residents at the time).

3 - Still pouring. Wind gusts vary from brutal to breezy. We watch Forrest Gump, and turn the volume up to drown out the scream of the wind.

6- Rains have calmed a bit, but they are still telling us that the worst is yet to come. I plug computer back in and go online for a while, long enough to discover that several people have already lost power. Of the two power companies in the area, one is already out working to restore electricity. The other is waiting until the weather clears. You would think that the company that begins work immediately would be far ahead of the other, but the anchors tell us that as soon as they restore one area, another goes out.


6:30 - Still raining. Make nice hot meal, assuming I will be subsisting on cold canned food shortly.


7 - Still raining. Wind gusts are vicious. Mom still on futon with blanket and cat, reading through her old diaries.


9 pm - Still pouring. Still getting intense gusts of wind. Head over to my neighbors' place. If I cross the lawn, it's a very short walk. But the very short walk is near the lake. At Mom's insistence, I take a flashlight out and watch the ground for pissed-off snakes and alligators. I don't see any, though someone's dog runs up to me. The puppy is loving the storm. It's owner, who is chasing it, is not.

9:03 - Start drinking. Diana tells me she ventured out to buy beer; she found the streets entirely dark with no working lights and debris everywhere. A power line snapped over her car as she was nearly home (she hit gas and got past it unscathed)


11pm - Play 'Riders on the Storm' on the balcony. (This is now my official hurricane soundtrack)

As predicted, the tail end of the storm is the harshest. Winds and rain intensify. At times, we cannot even see the lake right in front of us.

1am - one of our neighbors attempts to fly a kite. A bit, um, tipsy by then, Diana and are are completely puzzled to see a red plastic face floating through the storm, until we realize what it is.

2 am - I take the long way home, around the building, and get blasted by rain and wind the likes I have never seen. Call me crazy, but I found it quite exhilarating. Of course, I only had to go next door. I'm sure I wouldn't have enjoyed it so much if I had been forced out into it.

[Msylvia]

MONDAY -

10 am - Cable still out. We turn on news and listen to reports of severe flooding. Through the static on the TV, we can see
people riding waverunners through the streets of downtown.
Everyone has seen flood footage; people wading, kayaking
down streets that aren't supposed to be rivers. Bayshore has turned into a water park. People are floating around on plastic rafts, driving through the water. I read this morning that one kid drove the $80,000 Land Rover his parents got him all the way down Bayshore ... just to see if he could. Much of the footage is taken from my work; they also show our parking garage flooded. I assume I will get another day off out of this. While I am somewhat amused that people have retained their sense of humor, I can't help but wonder which of them is going to get a Darwin award. The water is contaminated, there are pissed-off gators and snakes around, and there are snapped power lines all over the place. And some of the sightseers are incredibly rude. A truck in a flood creates a wake, which pushes the water further into flooded houses. But several people admitted on camera that they 'just wanted pictures for Mom'

Idiots.

1pm - Still raining. Still windy. A retention pond in nearby Zephyrhills is on the brink of overflowing, which endangers a nearby mobile home park. The residents are told to evacuate immediately. Also, a phospherous plant has had a spill, and the bay is now even more polluted. A senior home is under 2 feet of water, and the elderly residents, some of whom are too frail to walk, are evacuated. You can see the pictures of them, with slippers and wheel chairs floating off. It's sad, but also heartwarming to see a teeny little 90 year old grandma brush off the storm fearlessly, more annoyed for not having hot coffee.


2pm - Still raining. The news is now an even more surreal mix of damage reports, tornado warnings, flood warnings, boil water warnings, evacuations (mandatory-voluntary-lifted-changed). And of course to top it all off, they keep updating us on Ivan.

It can't be good to name a storm after Ivan. Ivan the Terrible?
Yeah, that's optimistic.

Frances has moved into the Gulf, but her butt is still over us.
Still raining. Still windy. It has now been 3 days since I've seen the sun. And this is the sunshine state.


4pm- Delia has lost power and heads over. Like Diana, she
describes a surreal chaos on the roads. Most of the lights are out. The waters, seem to be receding, but the news is STILL not reassuring. The next concern is high tide.

7pm - Tell Delia about this last diary. She yells at me for choosing the name 'Trish' for her last time and insists on being called Delia. Mom is still snuggled in on futon with cat and book, very cozy.

8pm - Delia and my mom join forces in teasing me. I begin to realize I must keep them separated, for I am outnumbered.

11pm - we go to bed.

7am - Mom leaves. I tell her to leave her stuff here, as she will be back next weekend when Ivan hits.

7:30 am - A surreal drive to work. I don't see any major damage in my area, but several poles and trees are leaning precariously at odd angles, which gives the world something of an Edward Scissorhands look. Most of the traffic lights are out. There are cops directing traffic at major intersections, so it's the smaller ones that are hairy.


12:30 - Lunch. I see the sun for the first time in days.

[Msylvia]

IVAN

(Thursday)

Things are not by any means normal around here. Many of my friends and co workers are still without power, and the flooding is still severe (rivers peaked Tuesday & Wednesday).
I noticed yesterday that one of the fences outside my apt was knocked over. A good friend of mine was flooded out.

And it looks like Ivan is coming here and will make landfall as a Cat 4 or 5.

This new storm is by far the scariest. For one thing, there is already a lot of debris from Frances and Charley that willl be blown around. The ground, lakes, and rivers are already over-saturated, and parts of the drainage system are clogged by debris. Resources are spread thin. The stores are either low on the usual supplies (canned goods, water, candles, batteries, etc) or are out entirely. Gas is also scarce in many areas. There are over 100,000 families in this area still without power.

All of the damage in this area was done by a Tropical storm or Cat 1, as Frances had downgraded before it reached this area.
Ivan has already devastated Grenada. I have only seen one picture of it so far. That's not good. Even in the most severe storms, there is usually footage coming out of the area right after.


Tempers are short. Even those who had the non-chalant attitude of 'it won't hit' are freaked out by now. We won't have time to even really catch our breath before getting pummeled.

It's possible that Ivan will turn, of course, but the forecasts keep getting more ominous for this area.

I'm so over this!!!!!

[Mikey]

post deleted

[Lazarus53]

I have no one in Florida or anywhere along the coast so I can't say that I have know what you folks go through. I appreciate your running account........it is very interesting, not to say disturbing! I have survived tornadoes so I can relate with that but when you have a hurricane on top of them...........Brrrrrrrrrrrr...........NO THANK YOU!

[Msylvia]

Wow, right around the corner from me...


Bayshore got flooded slightly from Ivan, as the storm caused very high tides. They closed it for a little while yesterday, but it dried out fairly quickly. It
floods all the time .... which makes me really glad I live in Carrollwood, in a
non flood zone.

Ivan missed us, but we still can't relax, as now it's Jeanne that may come this way.

Sigh.